In bottle 10 is a sample of butter made in the spring when the grass was green. Please note its fine golden color. In bottle 11 is a sample of butter from milk from the same herd produced in the winter when there was practically no green grass. Please note the difference in the intensity of color between the two samples.

Senator AIKEN. Is that Holstein butter?

Mr. HOPKINS. Half Holstein. I am going to give you that information. This was made in the spring, when the grass is green. This was made from the same herd in the fall when the grass was not green. Our herd is just about half Holstein and half Jersey. Had it been all Holstein we would not have had as much color in either of these two samples as we have here, because the color of Holstein cream is lighter than that of Jersey cream.

Senator ELLENDER. Will you describe that color for the record?

Mr. HOPKINS. This is the natural color of the butter. I cannot describe it scientifically. I would not qualify it for that, but it is the natural color of the cream.

Senator ELLENDER. One is yellower than the other.

Mr. HOPKINS. That is right. These two samples of butter were produced from the same herd of cows. This sample, No. 10, is made in the spring when the grass was green. Note its fine, golden yellow color. No artificial color was added to either sample, nor was either sample bleached. It is to butter like this that most butter manufacturers add color during much of the year. This butter was made from milk produced by our own herds which is about one-half Holstein and one-half Jerseys. If we used milk from Holstein cows exclusively the color of the butter would have been a little lighter.

Vegetable oils or animal fats used in the manufacture of margarine must have a color not to exceed limits as outlined in regulations No. 9 of the Bureau of Internal Revenue relative to margarine. If the natural color of the oils or fats used does exceed the color limits established, the oil or fat must be bleached or the margarine will be classed as "colored" on which there is a Federal tax of 10 cents per pound. Consequently, the natural color of fats and oils used in making margarine is removed by bleaching in order to meet the color standards established by law and to avoid the penalty of 10 cents per pound Federal tax assessed against colored margarine.

As explained above, while the addition of artificial color is not harmful to butter, the removal of the natural color in the oil does remove and destroy some of the natural food value in the oil. The the natural color of the oil, automatically destroying some of its food and then if artificial color is added to margarine, those same

value,

laws require that a tax of 10 cents be imposed on the margarine because it is colored.

May I emphasize again that the Federal law requires that we remove the natural color from the oil or fat before making it into margarine, which necessarily produces an artificially white product. If the natural color is left in the oil or fat, the color of the finished. margarine will exceed the limits established by law.

Artificial coloring is sometimes added to margarine to give it the appetite appeal desired by the American housewife. When this is done the word "colored" is printed on the carton and on the line above

"Oleomargarine" so the consumer may know that it is colored margarine. This addition of artificial color incurs a coloring penalty of 10 cents per pound, which must, of course, be added to the price that the housewife pays for her colored margarine. Coloring does increase the appetite appeal, but if artificial color is added by the margarine manufacturer, even though he was originally forced to remove and destroy the natural color in the fat or oil by bleaching, the consumer must pay a tax of 10 cents per pound for the privilege of using colored margarine.

Were it not for the fact that Federal regulations require that fats and oils shall not exceed a certain color to be used in the manufacture of margarine, it would be possible for manufacturers of margarine to make colored margarine, without adding any artificial coloring. However, such margarine would vary in intensity of color, depending upon the kind of oils or fats used, as the color of butter varies from season to season and from different breeds of cows. Consequently, the manufacturers of margarine ask that they too, be permitted by law to utilize the natural color in the oil and conserve its food value without the necessity of bleaching, and be given the privilege of adding artificial color to margarine to give the consumer of margarine a uniformly colored product throughout the year, just as is done with butter without the imposition of any coloring tax.

I hand you an illustrated flow chart, exhibit C, showing how oil is refined and processed from crude oil into the finished margarine. Senator ELLENDER. The chart will be filed at this point in the record.

(Exhibit C referred to is on following page.)

Mr. HOPKINS. You will observe that after the crude oil is refined and made into yellow oil, the flow divides, one going to the right and the other to the left, but the operations are identical, except that on the right side of the chart just after the refined oil leaves the refining tank, it is bleached and the natural color is removed in the bleaching operation. After the bleaching operation, the other operations are exactly the same for both oils.

On the left, you will observe that the refined oil which was not bleached produced a colored margarine and no artificial color was added to give the margarine its yellow color. Oil on the right going through the same process after the refined oil had been bleached, produced an artificially white margarine that has no appetite appeal. The sketch referred to is simply a flow chart, but with this chart before you, you can see how bleaching does affect the appearance of the finished products.

After

Gentlemen, I have here some samples that I would like to present at this time. Sample 1 is crude vegetable oil. This particular sample happens to be soybean oil, crude soybean oil. You will observe that in its crude state it is light brown in appearance. this crude oil was refined it produced this next sample 2. It is the same oil as sample 1, except that it has been refined. You will note that this oil is clear and has a brownish-yellow color. When this refined oil was bleached, it looked like sample 3. This is the same crude oil as shown in sample 1 after it has been refined and bleached. You will observe that practically all the color has been removed from the oil by the bleaching operation. This next sample 6 is the same bleached oil shown in sample 3 except it has been hydrogenated, and

deodorized. When this oil 6 was manufactured into margarine, it produced an artificial white margarine like the sample 7 shown here. Now let us go back to the sample of refined oil No. 2. You will remember we started here with crude oil, and we got several operations of bleaching, hydrogenation, and ultimate manufacturing into margarine.

Now, suppose we eliminate the bleaching and make hydrogenated oil without bleaching the color. This is sample 4, the same as No. 2, except the greater part of this oil has been hydrogenated.

The resultant margarine produced from the refined, unbleached, and partly hydrogenated oil is shown in this bottle 5. Please bear in mind that no artificial coloring has been added, but we have not removed the natural color from the oil.

This sample 7 of margarine without color is exactly the same oil and same product as the No. 5 yellow sample except that the white margarine had the natural color removed from it in the bleaching operation. Gentlemen, in reality we have made an artificial, not a natural product. We made an artificial product in sample 7, from which we removed some of the coloring, the natural, inherent coloring and food value, simply to conform with reprehensible Federal regulations requiring that the food value be removed from the oil so as to protect one group of farm producers as against another.

I would like to interject here that mother nature has not confined exclusively to any section of the country or any particular product or any breed of animals exclusive use of color. Color varies with different products. I make that statement, notwithstanding the fact that some butter manufacturers and others contend, or make the claim, that the color yellow is the final, anointed color to be exclusively used by the butter manufacturers. There is no justification for requiring margarine manufacturers to remove color, while at the same time permitting a competing manufacturer to use the artificial color, so as to appeal to the housewife.

It will be interesting to note what would happen to butter if the laws required that butterfat be bleached and all the natural color removed before it could be made into butter. I have here a sample 8 of pure butterfat from milk produced in the spring of the year. All the moisture and serum solids have been removed from the cream from which it was made and the content of the bottle is pure butterfat, which constitutes 80 percent of the weight of butter. Now we can subject this butterfat to the same bleaching operation that is reuqired of vegetable oil in the making of margarine and we will produce an artificial white fat like this sample 9. This is bleached butterfat, and butter made from this fat would have the appearance of uncolored margarine.

Because it is expected that an outstanding nutritional authority will testify at this hearing regarding the nutritive food value of margarine, I shall only make the statement that margarine, when fortified with vitamin A, is the nutritive equivalent of butter and support that statement with the two following published authorities.

The first is taken from a Report on Butter Substitutes, dated February 1, 1943, by the Committee on Public Health Relations of the New York Academy of Medicine:

From a nutritional viewpoint, when it is fortified with vitamin A in the required amount, oleomargarine is the equal of butter, containing the same amounts of protein, fat, carbohydrates, and calories per unit of weight. Moreover, since the minimum vitamin A content of "enriched" oleomargarine is fixed and the amount of this vitamin in butter may range from 500 to 20,000 units per pound, "enriched" oleomargarine is a more dependable source of vitamin A than is butter. Since it is a cheaper product than butter, fortified oleomargarine constitutes a good vehicle for the distribution of vitamin A and fats to low-income groups and should therefore be made available to them.

Under the standards set by the Food and Drug Administration, oleomargarine is as clean and sanitary a food as butter. The two products are likewise equal in digestibility. Their relative palatability is a matter of individual taste.

The second is from the summary of A Report on Margarine, dated August 1943, by the Food and Nutrition Board of the National Research Council.

The present available scientific evidence indicates that when fortified margarine is used in place of butter as a source of fat in a mixed diet, no nutritional differences can be observed. Although important differences can be demonstrated between different fats in special experimental diets, these differences are unimportant when a customary mixed diet is used. The above statement can only be made in respect to fortified margarine and it should be emphasized that all margarine should be fortified.

I repeat again, gentlemen, that all margarine in the United States is 99 percent fortified with vitamin A.

As I have pointed out, margarine is a product of the American farms as can be readily seen from the ingredient schedule shown in exhibit B. I emphasize the fact that the ingredients used in the manufacture of margarine are the products of millions of American farms, because I want to show that through rank and unjustified discrimination our Federal Government imposes a tax on the products of one group of American farmers in order to give a supposed advantage to another group of American farmers.

You will note that in my last statement, I said "supposed" advantage. I would like to point out that the unrestricted sale of margarine has not adversely affected the price dairy farmers receive for their butterfat. I have before me the Agricultural Statistics of 1943 as published by the United States Department of Agriculture. I refer you to page 327, table 419.

Senator ELLENDER. At this point we will place in the record. table 419, page 327, Agricultural Statistics for 1943.

TABLE 419.-Farm diary products: Quanity sold from farms, price, and value; milk utilized for household contumption on farms where produced, and value; gross income from dairy products; and farm value of milk produced, by States, 19421